Charter schools grow but so do legal challenges

By D. Aileen Dodd

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The growing pains of  Georgia charter schools will be discussed Friday at an annual address tracking the school choice movement.

Gains in student achievement and an increase in charter school startups have made the state a competitive player in the education enterprise industry, say state administrators and leaders of the Georgia Charter Schools Association.

Charter officials will detail how students are faring and share proposals on the horizon at the "State of the Charter" meeting from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta.

The talk comes as the DeKalb County School District becomes the fourth system to sue the state over the local control of public education and the dollars allocated for students.

Approximately 65,000 students attend charter schools statewide.

"The number of charter schools have been growing exponentially over the past five years," said Seth Coleman, spokesman for the Georgia Charter Schools Association. "There are 122 now. There were 35 five years ago."

Despite that growth, recent standardized test scores show that charter school students appear to be achieving at higher levels than their peers on traditional campuses. A GCSA analysis found that 81.1 percent of all charter schools met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals for student achievement in 2009 compared with 79.1 percent of all traditional public schools in the state.

Students at startup charter schools -- charters run independently of local districts -- fared even better. Nearly 83 percent of independent charter schools made AYP, according to the analysis.

Not all charter schools were high-performing, however. Some lost their charter status because they had not fulfilled their contracts with the state.

In addition to academic setbacks, there are hurdles facing charter schools. The state's newest charter authorizer, the Georgia Charter Schools Commission; the state Department of Education; Superintendent Kathy Cox and several others were sued by the Gwinnett County School District. This week, the DeKalb County Board of Education also announced its decision to join Gwinnett's lawsuit. The Bulloch and Candler school districts filed a similar suit. The lawsuits also name the schools receiving the state funds, Ivy Preparatory Academy in Norcross and Charter Conservatory for Liberal Arts & Technology in Statesboro.

The legal challenges allege that the Charter Schools Commission is illegally funding and authorizing new schools outside the mandates of the state constitution. It also scolds the state for giving charter school campuses money meant for public school districts.